Prices regain most of lost ground

EFFORTS by some processors to reduce lamb prices last week were more than offset by the tightness of supply, and prices regained most of any lost ground by the end of the week.

The opening quotes for this week have been back by as much as 6 cents/kg, relative to a week earlier, with base prices ranging 358-370 cents/kg (128p-132p/lb) and in the marts, prices have been stronger by up to 4/head, with factory lambs regaining some of the price slippage of recent weeks.

There is no flurry by factories to get large supplies of lambs, but the slippage in supply in recent week put some pressure on to get more lambs, and helped to maintaining prices to farmers.